Lehman Brothers
Headquarters:
745 Seventh Avenue
New York, NY 10019
CEO: Richard Fuld
Website: http://www.lehman.com
Stock Symbol: n/a
Lehman Brothers was an investment bank providing financial services to corporations, governments and municipalities, institutional clients and wealthy individuals around the world.
The firm filed for bankruptcy on September
15 due to over $600 billions of dollars in debt from mortgage-backed
securities and a steep decline in its stock price. The bankruptcy
is the largest in corporate history.
After the bankruptcy filing, British-bank
Barclays agreed to buy Lehman's investment banking business in
the U.S. for $1.35 billion. The deal also includes the purchase
of Lehman's NYC headquarters building and two data centers in
NJ. Barclays has offered jobs to 10,000 Lehman employees in NY.
Nomura Holdings said it would buy Lehman's
Asia and Australian businesses for $225 million.
Morgan Stanley is headquartered in New
York, with regional headquarters in London and Tokyo, and has
a network of 50 offices in 20 countries.
In fiscal 2007, Lehman Brothers reported
revenues of $19.3 billion, a 10% increase, and net income of
$4.2 billion. Compensation and benefits accounted for $9.4 billion
in 2007.
History
Henry Lehman, an immigrant from Germany,
opened a general store in the city of Montgomery, ALA in 1844.
Six years later, he was joined by brothers Emanuel and Mayer,
and they named the business Lehman Brothers.
The Civil War disrupted the Lehmans' business
and when it ended, the brothers moved to New York and concentrated
their operations where they helped establish the Cotton Exchange.
The post-war period witnessed the rapid
growth of railroads, sparking the transformation of the nation
from an agrarian to an industrial economy. At the time, Lehman
Brothers' future merger partner, Kuhn, Loeb, was underwriting
much of the financing for railroad construction.
Railroad bonds represented a significant
advance in the development of capital markets. Their affordable
price attracted a great number of individual investors and Lehman
Brothers, recognizing a trend, expanded its commodities business
to include the sale and trading of securities. The Firm also
moved into the area of financial advisory, which provided the
foundation for underwriting expertise.
The company would broaden its expertise
into merchant banking and launched a securities trading business.
Lehman Brothers would become a member of the New York Stock Exchange
in 1887.
Lehman would become a financier for many
top retailers in the U.S. including Sears Roebuck and Co., R.H.
Macy and F.W. Woolworth Inc. It would also back new entertainment
firms including Paramount and 20th Century Fox.
The firm would become independent from
American Express in 1993 when Shearson Lehman Hutton was sold
to the Travelers Group. Lehman Brothers would go public in 1994.
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